presents kronos quartet

Beyond Zero: 1914-1918

David Harrington violin John Sherba violin Hank Dutt viola Sunny Yang cello

Post-Performance Discussions You are invited to remain in the theater immediately following the performance for an informal discussion with the artists.

Funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts’ Art Works, the Frank L. Harrington 1924 Fund No. 3, the John M. Tiedtke 1930 Visiting Performing Artists Fund and a Gift of Linda and Frederick A. Roesch ‘60, T’61, P’88, P’90.

Part of World War I Reconsidered.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015 • 7 pm Spaulding Auditorium • Dartmouth College program This performance is presented without an intermission.

Prelude to a Black Hole Eternal Memory to the Virtuous + Byzantine Chant (arr. Aleksandra Vrebalov) Three Pieces for String Quartet Igor Stravinsky Dance Eccentric Canticle Last Kind Words + Geeshie Wiley (arr. Jacob Garchik) Evic Taksim + Tanburi Cemil Bey (arr. Stephen Prutsman) Trois beaux oiseaux du Paradis + Maurice Ravel (arr. JJ Hollingsworth) Smyrneiko Minore + Traditional (arr. Jacob Garchik) Six Bagatelles, Op. 9 Anton Webern Mäßig Leicht bewegt Ziemlich fließend Sehr langsam Äußerst langsam Fließend They Are There! Fighting for the People’s New Free World Charles Ives Nunc Dimittis from All-Night Vigil + Sergei Rachmaninov (arr. Kronos Quartet)

Beyond Zero: 1914–1918 * A work for quartet with film

Composer...... Aleksandra Vrebalov Filmmaker...... Bill Morrison

Creative Consultants...... David Harrington and Drew Cameron Producer...... Janet Cowperthwaite Production Management...... Kronos Performing Arts Association * Written for Kronos / + Arranged for Kronos

Beyond Zero: 1914–1918, with music by Aleksandra Vrebalov and film by Bill Morrison, is supported in part by an award to the Kronos Performing Arts Association from the National Endowment for the Arts Art Works. Additional funding for the project is provided by The MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Beyond Zero: 1914–1918 was commissioned for the Kronos Quartet by Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College; Cal Performances; and the National World War I Museum at Liberty Memorial and Harriman-Jewell Series, Kansas City, Missouri. kronos quartet Violin...... David Harrington Violin...... John Sherba Viola...... Hank Dutt Cello...... Sunny Yang

Lighting Supervisor...... Brian H. Scott Sound Designer...... Scott Fraser

Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association P. O. Box 225340, San Francisco, CA 94122-5340 USA kronosquartet.org; facebook.com/kronosquartet; instagram.com/kronos_quartet; Twitter: @kronosquartet #kronos

The Kronos Quartet records for Nonesuch Records. program notes Prelude to a Black Hole “Most wars are made by small stupid/ The Great War, a monumental blunder of a selfish bossing groups/ handful of monarchs and ministers… while the people have no say.” [Charles Ives]

“When we're through this cursed war / The monumental blunder began in Sarajevo, when All started by a sneaking gouger / one man shot another. Ninety-nine years later, making slaves of men” [Charles Ives] near the historical seat of Serb Orthodoxy, Aleksandra Vrebalov discussed the century’s wars contains, and sometimes conceals, the stories with Father Jerotej of the Kovilj Monastery. He of millions. The bombast of newspapers, the sang: warmongers’ whoop all too often drowned out private meditations, acts of remembrance, and “In everlasting remembrance shall the moments of innocent joy. righteous be, he shall not be afraid of evil tidings,”

“In these great times, which I knew when …a Byzantine verse performed regularly at the they were small, and which shall be small again feasts of martyrs, always sung right at the point of should they live long enough” [Karl Kraus] communion with the divine. Kronos Quartet’s Prelude to a Black Hole weaves Others, too, gazed towards the heavens. together these quiet voices… Rachmaninov’s Vespers, a choral orchestration of “who would Kronos have been working Kievan and Russian znamenniy chant, were with in 1914?” [David Harrington] written quickly and with conviction during the first two months of 1915. Nyne otpushchayeshi—in with a collage (sometimes a barrage) of 78 Latin, Nunc dimittis—depicts the enraptured rpm records, piano rolls and antique musical Symeon, who had sworn not to die until he had instruments culled from around the world. beheld the Messiah. program notes CONTINUED “Lord, now you let your servant go in peace / Your Russian peasant dance. The cello digs into a word has been fulfilled / My eyes have seven-beat ostinato, while the first violinist seen the salvation / You have prepared in capers to a dizzying, circular melody of twenty- the sight of every people…” three beats. From an identical point of As Symeon the God-Receiver utters his last, departure, each instrument proceeds on its merry way. The second piece, according to “A light to reveal you to the nations and Stravinsky, was a portrait of the glory of your people, Israel,” “Little Tich, a harlequin no more than four the serenely radiant harmony gradually darkens, feet in his shoes, but as full of humor as a until it is finally entombed in sepulchral B-flats for fraternal order funeral.” [H.L. Mencken, et al] the basses. though Ernst Ansermet was certain that “Danilin shook his head, saying, "Now where Stravinsky’s clown must be a sad one. on earth are we to find such basses?" …Nevertheless, he did find them. Some were less sad to see the war come. I knew the voices of my countrymen...” [Sergei Rachmaninov] “I can hardly wait any longer to be called up… It is the struggle of the angels with devils.” This descent into death was also to be [Anton Webern] Rachmaninov’s own: the composer so loved this work he chose it for his funeral. Yet Webern’s music contains none of this chest-beating. It demands that the listener The last of Stravinsky’s Three Pieces for String respect the smallest, quietest utterance of the Quartet, with its call-and-response pattern, individual, that the listener respect music which echoes the litanies of the Russian Orthodox church. The deacon makes petition of God: “expresses a novel with a single gesture, a joy in a single breath.” [Arnold Schoenberg]

“In peace let us pray to the Lord, for the The intensely spiritual composer sought to peace that is from above, and for the portray earthly transcendence. The lugubrious

salvation of our souls, let us pray unto the lord.” fifth bagatelle recollects the death of Webern’s [The Great Litany] mother, while the sixth captures

To which the congregation’s reply is almost always “The angels in heaven. The incomprehensible the same: state after death.” [Anton Webern]

“ oo co u, ou y u ˇ –Gospodi pomiluj– Ravel, too, vacillated between the roles of poet Lord, have mercy.” and warrior. The Oiseaux du Paradis are figures from Persian myth, rare birds who appear to At the end, the viola issues a heartfelt heroes as auspicious omens. The gentle, modal “Amen.” harmonies and frequent melodic repetitions call to mind the courtly medieval rondeau. The three If Stravinsky’s third piece addresses the soul, the birds themselves, emissaries from a friend who other two attend to the body. The first has gone off to war, are movement offers a Cubist perspective on a program notes CONTINUED “more blue than the sky…. as white as snow… “If you love me and it's a dream, bright, bright red” may I never wake up,”

Displaying these patriotic colors, they bestow the lonely could forget abandoned homes and upon the poet (in this case, Ravel himself) absent lovers. Born on the eastern Greek isle of Kos, Papagika performed (it is thought) through- “a blue-eyed glance… the purest kiss… out the Levant before settling in America. She a crimson heart” brought with her the smyrneiko, the popular, instilling in him both fear and a desire polyglot cabaret style that originated in the cafes for reunion. The work was dedicated to Paul of cosmopolitan Smyrna. Painlevé, mathematician, minister and aeronautic “In the sweetness of dawn, engineer. The composer yearned to fly for France God should take my soul away.” and, against the advice of horrified friends and colleagues, used his connection with Painlevé in War did not end in 1919, the year Papagika made an attempt to enroll in the country’s air corps. her recording. Greek forces wrested Smyrna from the collapsing Ottoman empire. Kemal Atatürk “What you do to me baby it never gets retook the city in 1922. Three days later, the Great outta me / I may not see you after Fire reduced much of Smyrna to ash. I cross the deep blue sea.” “The Eviç makam still spoke through his thoughts Three 78s, made years after the war in Grafton, with the ambience it had gathered from now-lost Wisconsin, are virtually all that is left of blues lands of the Balkans, serving up beautiful facets of guitarist and singer Geeshie Wiley. The “Last Kind Nuran's attributes, of the bitterness of human fate, Words” may or may not have been those her and of the memories of long-forgotten cities...” [Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar] father said before going off to fight.

“If I die, if I die in the German war, I want you Eviç is one of the modes of classical Turkish to send my body, send it to my mother, lord.” music, classified centuries before the Ottomans by the great philosopher al-Farabi of Baghdad We can search for knowledge, winding our way and Damascus. According to one music through the spiral labyrinth of this record— dictionary, other modes one might evoke within its distinctive guitarwork, its atmosphere of Eviç are Müsteâr, Hicâz, Nikrîz or Segâh. foreboding (expressed in the minor mode, peculiar for the period), Wiley’s deadpan “Written on all the rakı bottles were an array of honorary dedications: ‘To my master, my singing—but there will always be a hole at the esteemed master, the venerated Cemil…’” center, a perpetual reminder of absence. [Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar]

“The Mississippi river, you know it's deep Tanburi Cemil Bey, the virtuoso of many and wide, I can stand right here, see my babe from the other side.” instruments, was revered for the intricacy of his melodies, the fluidity of his modulations, the The Greek men of New York, economic migrants complexity of his preludes, his taksimler. All were or refugees from Ottoman depredations, knew performed with an unruffled smile. Many of his this longing as well. When Marika Papagika sang compositions survive, but the era’s notation was to them insufficient to cope with his improvisations. Were program notes CONTINUED it not for the dozens of records made by the My intention was to juxtapose these historical German-Jewish brothers Hermann and Julius accounts of war with the finest expressions of Blumenthal, much of Cemil’s most personal, most spirit and creativity occurring at the same time— spontaneous art would have died with him. therefore Béla Bartók’s own playing of his Piano Suite written in 1916, and Huelsenbeck’s reading of “If I get killed, if I get killed, please don't bury my his Chorus Sanctus, also written in 1916. A girl soul / I p'fer just leave me out, let the buzzards eat calling her cats is a symbolic reminder of suffering me whole.” [Geeshie Wiley] of women and children, and of longing for lost “Hip hip hooray you'll hear them say / safety and domesticity. Beyond Zero: 1914–1918 as they go to the fighting front.” [Charles Ives] ends with fragments of a dark Byzantine hymn “Eternal Memory to the Virtuous,” chanted by the “For this is now a war for peace.” [H.G. Wells] monks from the Kovilj monastery in Serbia, in -Greg Dubinsky remembrance to all who lost their lives in the Great War and every war since then. Beyond Zero: 1914–1918 –Aleksandra Vrebalov Unlike official histories, which have often The film portion ofBeyond Zero: 1914–1918 is romanticized and glorified the war, artists have comprised of films that have never been seen by typically been the keepers of sanity, showing its modern audiences. I searched archives for rare brutality, destruction and ugliness. For many, across 35mm nitrate films shot during the Great War, and history, creating art in those circumstances served made new brand new HD scans from the originals. as a survival mechanism. In many cases this is the last expression of these films—some original copies were determined to While working on Beyond Zero: 1914–1918, I was not be worth preserving beyond this transfer to inspired by anti-war writings, music and art created digital media. during and immediately after World War I, includ- ing, for example, the writings of Wilfred Owen and What we are left with is a glimpse of a war fought Siegfried Sassoon, the music of Satie and Debussy, in fields, in trenches, and in the air. Most of the and the Dada movement. The piece draws from footage shows some emulsion deterioration—the their disillusionment about heroism and patriotism, by-product of a history stored on an unstable summed up in Owen’s line from Dulce et Decorum, base for 100 years. Through a veil of physical that to die for one’s country is the old lie. degradation and original film dyes, we see training exercises, parades and troop movement. Throughout the piece, there are several Some of the battle footage was re-enacted for the documentary recordings from different wars—from camera, and some depicts actual live rounds. All the horrific “Loyalty Speech” of James Watson of it was shot on film at the time of the conflict. Gerard, who served as a U.S. Ambassador to Germany until 1917, to military commands of We see a record of a war as a series of documents Serbian and Bosnian troops during the conflicts that passed along to us like a message in a bottle. led to the brutal falling apart of Yugoslavia in 1990s, None is more powerful than the record of the film to the chilling sound of air-raid sirens during the itself, made visible by its own deterioration. We bombing of London in World War II. are constantly reminded of its materiality: this film was out on these same fields with these soldiers program notes CONTINUED 100 years ago, a collaborator, and a survivor. It is have fought to remain on the screen. They are being seen now as a digital image for the first threatened on all sides by the unstable nitrate time. base they were recorded on, and the prism of nearly one hundred uninterrupted years of war, If these are images that we, as viewers, were once through which we now view them. intended to see, to convince us of the necessity –Bill Morrison and valor of war, they now read as images that

ABOUT THE ARTISTs For more than 40 years, San Francisco’s The quartet spends five months per year on tour, Kronos Quartet—David Harrington (violin), appearing in the world’s most prestigious John Sherba (violin), Hank Dutt (viola) and concert halls, clubs and festivals. Kronos is Sunny Yang (cello)—has combined a spirit of equally prolific and wide-ranging on recordings, fearless exploration with a commitment to including Pieces of Africa (1992), a showcase of continually re-imagining the string quartet African-born composers that simultaneously experience. In the process, Kronos has become topped Billboard’s Classical and World Music one of the world’s most celebrated and influen- lists; Nuevo (2002), a Grammy– and Latin tial ensembles, performing thousands of Grammy–nominated celebration of Mexican concerts worldwide, releasing more than 50 culture; and the 2004 Grammy winner, Alban recordings, collaborating with many of the Berg’s Lyric Suite. Kronos’ two most recent world’s most eclectic composers and releases (both in 2014) are Kronos Explorer performers, and commissioning more than 800 Series, a five-CD retrospective boxed set; and works and arrangements for string quartet. A the single-disc A Thousand Thoughts, featuring Grammy winner, Kronos is also the only recipient mostly unreleased recordings from throughout of both the Polar Music Prize and the Avery Kronos’ career. Fisher Prize. With a staff of eleven based in San Francisco, the Integral to Kronos’ work is a series of long- non-profit Kronos Performing Arts Association running, in-depth collaborations with many of (KPAA) manages all aspects of Kronos’ work, the world’s foremost composers, including including the commissioning of new works, Americans Terry Riley, Philip Glass and Steve concert tours and home-season performances, Reich; Azerbaijan’s Franghiz Ali-Zadeh; Poland’s and education programs. The Quartet last Henryk Górecki; and Serbia’s Aleksandra performed at the Hopkins Center in 2010. Vrebalov. Additional collaborators in concert and/or on disc have included Chinese pipa virtuoso Wu Man, performance artist Laurie Aleksandra Vrebalov (b. 1970), a native of the Anderson, Azeri vocalist Alim Qasimov, iconic former Yugoslavia, left Serbia in 1995 and Bollywood “playback singer” Asha Bhosle, Inuit continued her education in the United States. She throat singer Tanya Tagaq, Beatles legend holds a BA in composition from Novi Sad Paul McCartney, and rockers Tom Waits, Amon University in Serbia, a MM from San Francisco Tobin and The National. Conservatory of Music and doctorate in ABOUT THE ARTISTs CONTINUED composition from the University of Michigan. She material set to contemporary music. He has lives in New York City. collaborated with some of the most influential composers of our time, including John Adams, Vrebalov, named 2011 Composer of the Year by Laurie Anderson, Gavin Bryars, Dave Douglas, Muzika Klasika (for her opera Mileva, Richard Einhorn, Philip Glass, Michael Gordon, commissioned by the Serbian National Theater for Henryk Gørecki, Bill Frisell, Vijay Iyer, Jóhann its 150th anniversary season), has received awards Jóhannsson, David Lang, Steve Reich, Aleksandra by American Academy of Arts and Letters, Vrebalov and Julia Wolfe, among many others. Vienna Modern Masters, ASCAP, Meet the Com- poser, Douglas Moore Foundation and two Decasia (2002), a collaboration with the Mokranjac Awards, given by Serbian Association composer Michael Gordon, was selected to the of Composers for best work premiered in the US Library of Congress’ 2013 National Film country in 2010 and 2012. Registry, becoming the most modern film named to the list that preserves works of “great cultural, Vrebalov has had her works performed by the historic or aesthetic significance to the nation’s Kronos Quartet, David Krakauer, ETHEL, Jorge cinematic heritage.” Morrison’s films are also in Caballero, Serbian National Theater and Belgrade the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, Philharmonic, among others. Vrebalov has Walker Art Center, and the EYE Film Institute. He been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn is a Guggenheim fellow and has received the Youth Chorus, Barlow Endowment, Clarice Smith Alpert Award for the Arts, an NEA Creativity Performing Arts Center, Merkin Hall, San Grant, Creative Capital, and a fellowship from Francisco Conservatory and Louth Contemporary the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. His Music Society (Ireland). Her works have been theatrical projection design has been recognized choreographed by Dusan Tynek Dance Theater with two Bessie awards and an Obie Award. (NYC), Rambert Dance Company (UK), Take Dance (NYC) and Providence Festival Ballet. Her music In 2013, Morrison was honored with retrospective has been used in two films dealing with atrocities programs in four different countries: the Walker of war: Soul Murmur directed by Helen Doyle Art Museum, Minneapolis; the Vila Do Conde (Canada) and Slucaj Kepiro by Natasa Krstic Short Film Festival, Portugal; the Adelaide Film (Serbia). Festival, Australia; and the Aarhus Film Festival, Denmark. Vrebalov’s string quartet …hold me, neighbor, in this storm… was written for and recorded by In 2014 Morrison had a mid-career retrospective Kronos for the album Floodplain. Her string at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The quartet Pannonia Boundless, also for Kronos, was same year, The Great Flood opened theatrically, published by Boosey & Hawkes as part of the and The Miners Hymns toured with live musical Kronos Collection, and recorded for the album performances in the US and UK. His work is Kronos Caravan. For more information please see distributed by Icarus Films in North America, and aleksandravrebalov.com. the BFI in the UK. Morrison’s work was last seen at the Hopkins Center in 2011 with The Great Flood, Bill Morrison‘s films often combine rare archival which the Hop co-comissioned. CONNECTING ARTISTS TO THE COMMUNITY While at Dartmouth, David Harrington and Aleksandra Vrebalov joined faculty for a roundtable conversation, “Artists Respond to War, Part 2;” with Bill Morrison and Kronos Quartet, visited classes in Music and Film and Media Studies, and participate in a post-performance discussion. In conjunction with Kronos Quartet’s performance, Combat Paper Project creator Drew Cameron offered public papermaking workshops and an artist talk, spent a day in residence at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT, and met with student veterans. For more information on Hop Outreach & Arts Education, call 603.646.2010 or visit hop.dartmouth.edu/online/outreach.

AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER ORCHESTRA with MARTIN FRÖST clarinet sun Apr 19 7 pm SpAulDINg AuDITORIuM Known for poise, balance and intelligence as well as “high-spirited, rhythmically propulsive energy” (Los Angeles Times), ACO performs with the jaw-dropping Swedish-born Fröst— whose “virtuosity and musicianship [is] unsurpassed by any clarinetist” (The New York Times). Last here in 2012 for a ravishing performance of Winter Morning Walks (which later won a Grammy), ACO spans three centuries with works by Haydn, Prokofiev, Jonny Greenwood (of the alternative rock band Radiohead) and, with Fröst, Mozart.

MuSIC DEpARTMENT RESIDENCY ALVIN LUCIER with THE CALLITHUMPIAN CONSORT thu Apr 30 7 pm ROllINS CHApEl The New England Conservatory-based Callithumpian Consort performs works by Lucier, whose pioneering mixing of acoustic sound and pure wave oscillators creates shimmering, ethereal soundscapes. The program includes the premiere of a work celebrating the founding role that Lucier’s father, a 1918 Dartmouth graduate, played in the College’s first jazz ensemble; and Still Lives, in which a pianist duets with sine waves meditatively tracing the shapes of common household items.

For tickets or more info call the Box Office at 603.646.2422 or visit hop.dartmouth.edu. Sign up for weekly HopMail bulletins online or become a fan of “Hopkins Center, Dartmouth” on Facebook DARTMOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA ANTHONY PRINCIOTTI conductor sat FEB 28 8 pm SpaulDing auDiTOriuM COPLAND Buckaroo Holiday GERSHWIN An American in Paris DvORˇ ák Symphony No. 9

HOTEL MODERN in THE GREAT WAR tue & wed apr 7 & 8 7 pm THe MOOre THeaTer A highly anticipated part of Hop programming marking the centenary of WWI, this Dutch theater collective reprises its “live animation” show that uses deceptively childlike means to evoke that war’s realities. While the artists manipulate tiny props and everyday objects on miniature sets and video- project the action, the images are brought heartbreakingly to life by live sound effects and spoken narration from actual soldiers’ letters.

For tickets or more info call the Box Office at 603.646.2422 or visit hop.dartmouth.edu. Sign up for weekly HopMail bulletins online or become a fan of “Hopkins Center, Dartmouth” on Facebook

Hopkins Center Management Staff Jeffrey H. James ‘75a Howard Gilman Director Marga Rahmann Associate Director/General Manager Joseph Clifford Director of Audience Engagement Jay Cary Business and Administrative Officer Bill Pence Director of Hopkins Center Film Margaret Lawrence Director of Programming Joshua Price Kol Director of Student Performance Programs

HOPKINS CENTER BOARD OF OVERSEERS

Austin M. Beutner ’82 Robert H. Manegold ’75, P’02, P’06 Kenneth L. Burns H’93 Michael A. Marriott ’84, P’18 Barbara J. Couch Nini Meyer Allan H. Glick ’60, T’61, P’88 Hans C. Morris ’80, P’11, P’14 Chair of the Board Barry Grove ’73 Robert S. Weil ’40, P’73 Honorary Caroline Diamond Harrison ’86, P’16 Frederick B. Whittemore ’53, T’54, P’88, P’90, H’03 Kelly Fowler Hunter ’83, T’88, P’13, P’15 Jennifer A. Williams ’85 Richard P. Kiphart ’63 Diana L. Taylor ’77 Trustee Representative

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